InfiniteCircle

Okay, I admit it. I "copied" JimBob64's page and will be editing it. I know absolutely noting about editing yet but I'm about to learn. Bear with me and forgive my ineptness.

InfiniteCircle - Bright lights began to flash and numbers tumble, as from nowhere and everywhere at once he became. Through space and time intertwined, he's progressing and regressing with unbound chaos following in his wake.

Easy to approach but seemingly impossible to reach. His past, present and future seemingly all the same. At least, until that late summer day when a challenge was laid both before and after the moment though which he passed. A god a challenge did make to find a hero and guide its way.

He tried to recall if this had happened before but strangely no memory he found. Curious about the cause of this lapse the challenge he accepted and began his search. A nanosecond later his choice he'd made and a new hero was created. Through time eternal, he wished he'd searched a little bit longer for the hero he'd chosen was obviously broken.

-- GV is a most wondrous place. I've met some of the most wonderful people here and writing for sowing Sun has become a true passion. I plan to expand into other areas someday. I need to thank JimBob64 and SourceRunner for all the support and encouragement they gave me early on. I would probably have moved on to other things without their assistance. I really have to thank both of them for helping me get started writing. Although JimBob64 will say it was all SourceRunner when in fact it was both.

Character Bio: Chronicles (Underway, as is the hero's)

Nothing here yet...

Gameplay Notes (INTERMITTENT)

A

Housebreaking Your Hero (UNDER REVIEW)

Quick God-to-Mortal Communications 101 review: There are 2 basic ways of interacting with the hero: "Influences" (Encourage/Punish) which cost 25% GP to use, and Voice Commands (VCs) which cost 5% each. Influences can get pretty expensive if used as the sole means of interaction with the hero, so learning to leaven the blessings and/or lightning with some well-chosen words is a great asset to any would-be god.

A note: Voice commands may be ignored by the hero at times, and there are some times when certain voice commands will always be ignored. (I will try to note times each VC will never work in the description.) But still, Influences can also backfire, and a VC being ignored is much less expensive than a failed Influence. Furthermore, there are many things which can be accomplished only by VC... now, on to the listings!

Overworld Voice Commands (UNDERWAY -SHORTEN EACH VC)

To manage a hero, it's handy to know what words will clue the daft little nuisances lovable little guys in to what you want done. For this reason, I'm going to list the key words I've found with brief descriptions of what each one does. To save us all some Godpower, I'll try to name the times each command is best used (ah, those rare times when your hero doesn't ignore you completely.) Keywords are given in bold.

Pray will replenish a small amount of Godpower if obeyed. (Sacrifice gets you more godpower at times, but costs the hero gold to use.) WHEN YOU WILL DEFINITELY BE IGNORED: Fighting a monster, when already praying, healing, selling and when you have only 5% GP left and really need the boost.

Heal does exactly that, assuming the hero listens. Not as much as an Encourage, but still by a tidy amount. If you don't get any response to the first Heal VC, you're free to try again immediately, but if you get a negative response, wait 1 minute before trying again. WHEN YOU WILL DEFINITELY BE IGNORED: While healing already under a tree or in town, while praying, and while mid-fight with a monster.

Destroy the monster: Exactly what it says on the tin, as the saying goes. "Hit," "smite," "wrath" (as in, unleashing of) and "strike" also work. If successful, this command lets the hero inflict far more damage on the monster than usual, though not quite as much as a Punish of course. WHEN YOU WILL DEFINITELY BE IGNORED: Anywhere other than a monster fight.

Return to town: Causes the hero to about-face and start backtracking milestones, counting down from whatever number he or she is currently at, until arrival at the first town on that route. At this point, the entire heal/sell/buy/drink/pray cycle will go through before leaving town. WHEN YOU WILL DEFINITELY BE IGNORED: Fighting a monster. Not even a hero is mad enough to turn around and make tracks for town with a hungry monster still on the attack. EXTRA NOTE: One of our learned contributors tells me that the hero will obey orders to go back to town 6 times, and only 6, for every quest completed. After the 6th time on a single quest, the hero will quite pointedly tell you to knock it off.

Complete the quest faster: The hero may complete from 1 to 5% of the current quest if successful. Or ignore you and gripe. But you're used to that if you've played Godville for any length of time, I assume. WHEN YOU WILL DEFINITELY BE IGNORED: Healing, heading back to town, or anything at all in town. If you're in a town, you can ask the hero to return to the quest. Which oddly I've never done. I need to test this out.

Cancel this quest: Again, exactly what it says on the tin. If successful, the hero will abort the current quest on the spot and head back to town for a new one. Aborted quests give no reward. This command is most commonly used to abort guild-changing quests, which heroes will strike out on every so often until reaching Cardinal rank in their current guild. Another common use is to end the "vet/extend pet registration" quest given only to those whose pets have lost all their levels. These 2 quests give no reward if complete, but if canceled, the hero will release the level-less pet into the wild and attempt to find a new companion. WHEN YOU WILL DEFINITELY BE IGNORED: I have found no time when this command may not be heeded, with persistence. When the quest is already complete or canceled perhaps.

Dig for treasure: The hero puts a shovel to the ground and hopes to get lucky. Odds are you'll either get ignored or nothing, but sometimes you'll get items or a little gold from it. Occasionally, you'll dig up a couple thousand gold or something valuable. Or... discover the lair of a multiplayer boss, in which case you'll either have a 4-minute wait while nothing happens, or you'll be in for a fight.

Examine the item: If obeyed, the hero will mess about with an item in his or her inventory (you can name a specific one if you like) and based on personal experience, one of the following may happen: the item breaks, leaving you with nothing for your 5% GP, the item becomes another item (this result is rare) or the item becomes a small amount of gold (I think). NOTE TO SELF: Further testing of this is needed.

Learn and surprise us both: may cause a small experience-point gain when used. Odds of success are unknown, but it works in a town, out of a town, and everywhere but praying, trading, or fighting a monster. This experience boost is noticeable early on, but after a while won't even provide a 1% boost. Handy if you're under level 12 and willing to spennd lots of GP nagging the hero to level so you can join a guild faster, or if you need just a bit more to level up. NOTE: This will boost you to up to 100% to the next level, but will not itself trigger a level-up.

You die too much: Yes, they do. In fact, though it has a low rate of success and may get any of several reactions, heroes have occasionally been known to interpret anything with the letters D-I-E right next to each other as a command to come see their god in the afterlife right then and there. Careful with these three letters if you're highly protective of your Pantheon of Survival position. I accidentally tested this... sigh. The huge doofus. (Him and me both)

Although the keywords alone will do for purely functional purposes, players may also take advantage of the "random shouts" system, which lets other players see one's commands in their game, and up-or-downvote the voice based on personal reaction. Voices which garner the most positive reaction will net the author a reward in Godpower.

On Gold Brick Acquisition (UNDERWAY- NEEDS SHORTENING)

Ways they can be acquired, tactics for speeding acquisition, odds for acquisition maybe, and clear up that HEROES DON'T SMELT, GODS DO.

1000 gold bricks... takes practically forever. Or it would, if there weren't so many different ways of coming by them. Thanks to that, a temple only takes nearly forever instead.

Ways to get a brick:

The most common (and first) way for most people is at the end of a quest, where you may recieve either money, an equipment upgrade, a gold brick, or nothing. Quests complete every half-day as a general rule. (Epic quests take about 4 times as long, and can net you up to 3 bricks but no fewer than 1 in my experience, as well as a large amount of gold or equipment)

Another way to get a brick that requires little to no effort is to die from a monster attack. Occasionally (though rarely) the hero's stubbornness will break the monster down into bribing the defeated hero with a gold brick before he or she will admit to having been killed.

Another other way to get a brick is for the hero to buy one from a trader for a large sum of money. Gods can't influence a hero to buy a brick, it has to be done of the hero's independent will. Brick prices I've seen have varied from 1800 gold to 4000 (the 1800 was in Tradeburg for those who are wondering.) I believe good-aligned heroes may be slightly more prone to buy bricks than Evil ones. Just from the average rate of brick purchase I've observed when Gary-sue let's call him "Albert," switched from Good to Evil and back for purposes of observation.

The fourth way: Dig for treasure with the "dig" VC. There's about a 1/15 chance of finding a brick each time, so it may be best not to get one's hopes up...

Fifth way: Win a brick from the Arena. You have a chance of getting a brick just for showing up there, and a brick for winning. (sometimes easier said than done, if I write the Arena section of this page properly, those who read this will hopefully find it easier done.) Sometimes, you get a brick in the Arena even without matching. You can also win a brick in a skirmish, but that means the loser gives up a brick, so that's riskier than the Arena.

Sixth way: Melting a brick I said there are a lot of ways to get a brick- was I wrong? If your hero has 3000 gold or more in hand, there is a 1/4 chance of that gold fusing together into a single gold brick each time the god hits Encourage or Punish. Bricks 'are not' melted by VC. That's a common misconception. So I'll come right out with it: Stop wasting Godpower on it. Your hero can't melt gold into a brick, that's up to the god.

There may be more ways I've missed, but darned if I care to do any more writing now, it's 11:00 PM and time for me to quit procrastinating. More on this section later.

On melting gold bricks from coins: You can't get a hero to melt 3000 gold into a brick, period. Commands like that are a pet peeve of mine. If you want to turn 3000 gold into a brick, Encourage or Punish with 3000 gold or more in the hero's wallet. Every time these conditions are met, there is a 25% chance each Influence will melt the money into a brick.

!Successful Brick Melt↻

07:28 Suddenly felt a flash of burning heat that melted my coins into a golden brick. My pocket is not a foundry, my Lord, but thanks anyway.

See? Heroes don't melt, gods do. If you're really lucky, every so often (I still need to look up just how often) you can melt gold into bricks for '0% GP. Hallelujah!' Such an event is usually acknowledged as miraculous by the hero, or takes away the hero's health in some way.

Using Godpower Efficiently (WRITE THIS NEXT)

Combined with GP-conservation section. It's redundant to have them next to each other.

In this section, I will attempt to basically put down notes on the ways I've seen that can help a person use whatever godpower he or she may have (3 charges or 250, equally) to the best effect. Godpower charges only give 50% back when 100% is accumulated, so learning to effectively use what you can gather is a must. Or at least, it can make things rather easier.

Basically, "How to be a miser" Non-charge-adding techniques, tips and when to use for best effect with just the 100% you can hold after prayer, to avoid using Restore.

Charge-Hoarding Techniques (RESUMED WRITING)

"How to hold on to the charges you've got,
and how to rack 'em up beyond the basic 3
without a temple or a purchase."

Some handy charge-gathering items: Praystation/Sacrificial Lamp store a charge for 50% GP. Is 50% cheaper than accumulating manually, and can take you beyond 3 stored. Holy Powercell... is awesome. Free to activate, adds one accumulator charge, no upper limit on the number of charges it gives. One use each. If they weren't so rare, they'd be a gamebreaker.

For temple owners: Between Milestone 1 and 10, tell your hero to return to town (can be done up to 6 times per quest, allegedly.) and upon reaching Godville you'll retrieve an XP boost for 10,000 gold if you have it, and if not you'll either receive gold or a charge. Takes some luck, but sometimes temple owners can snag an extra charge or two per day from this.

Other methods forthcoming. Yes, I've started in on this at last. So settle down, Arena trolls! It takes less than 3 charges to beat someone who'd rather complain than play anyway.

(Something tells me if I do this section right, it'll be rather popular.)

In the Arena (RESTRUCTURING)

Until I figure out how to say it coherently, I'm hiding this section altogether. It's still there, but as it makes no sense, I took it off public display until forther notice to save us all some time and page space.

Duel Term Glossary

AB:(Awkwardly Bouncing) A Punish backfire which misses the opponent completely, harming only the sender. For full damage.

AC:(Action Count) Number of Actions/Influences remaining. Starts at 4, decrements every Action taken, increments for every Action the opponent takes. Whenever this value decreases to 0 for a player, (referred to as an Action Lock) he or she cannot Encourage or Punish until the value goes back up to 1. (The highest the Action Count will ever be is 8, if an opponent acts 4 times more.)

Action: The term used in dueling to refer to either an Encourage, a Punish, or a Miracle. In short, anything that decreases one's AC to do.

AL:(Action Lock) Purposefully using fewer Actions than one's opponent to reduce his/her Action Count to 0. An indicator of whether one has successfully action-locked an opponent is if one's own AC is at 8.

Arena: A type of duel costing 50% GP to send a hero to. (With a maximum of 17 minutes waiting.) On arrival, the hero recieves 3 random items. Steps take 40 seconds each, after the first 3 steps, gods can take Actions and send VCs. The winner recieves a gold brick, the loser's gold, and a Godpower refill (to 100%, plus a charge added to the Accumulator) and the loser recieves a loss on his or her record and forfeits their gold but not their life. Both combatants fully, though gradually, heal after the fight. Can be done once every 4 hours if the hero matches, once every hour if not. Arena matches prevent skirmishes for 3 days afterwards.

BF:(Backfire) When an Action goes awry, and mis-targets its effects to the wrong hero, or to both or neither of the combatants equally. Every Encourage or Punish has a 25% chance of backfiring.

Charges: Godpower Accumulator charges. Each will add 50% to the Godpower available to the player when used. The maximum number of charges obtainable without leveling up, the use of special items (to be covered in the Godpower Hoarding section of the page) or buying charges is 3.

Duel: A turn-based battle in which two players (or a computer-controlled opponent vs. one or more players) alternate hitting each other (or goofing off and skipping turns) until one side is defeated. There are different types of duels, each with its own defining characteristics: Arena, Boss, Skirmish, and Sparring duels. (More on those later.) Generally, the winning side comes away with a prize of some type, and the losing side gets nothing after the fight.

GP: Short for "Godpower." Sending the hero to the Arena costs 50% GP. Encourage or Punish Actions cost 25% GP to use, Miracles cost 50%, and VCs cost 5% each. 100% is the most you can have.

IM:(Imprecise Master/Mistress) Encourage backfire which heals only the opponent's hero, and not the sender.

Miracle: A special type of Action available only to temple-owners. Costs 50% GP to use. Does not technically backfire. Instead, may damage opponent's equipment, leech opponent's GP, or destroy their inventory. Considered not-very-useful by many duelists. Widely regarded as inconsiderate to use in most, if not all, Arena fights.

Skirmish: Obsolete, these are no more. Historically, it was "A type of duel which may occur when two heroes within each other's matching range meet at the same milestone and neither hero has fought in the Arena in 3 or more days. Each step (turn) takes 40 seconds, during which both gods have the chance to take Actions or use VCs to affect the battle's outcome. The winner of a skirmish takes all the loser's gold, items, and a gold brick, and adds a win to his or her Duel Record. Winning these can be quite lucrative at times. Losing a skirmish means giving up these things, adding a loss to one's record, and possibly death as well."

Sparring fight: Like a mock-battle. 40-second steps, after the first 3, players are allowed to affect the battle. The winner gains nothing but experience points, the loser loses nothing whatsoever. A safe, off-the-books way to gain some practical experience with dueling. Can only be done with those on one's friend list (via the Challenge a Friend button, costing 50% GP to ask the friend to spar. Duriong these 5 minutes, all action of the sender's hero ceases until the friend accepts the challenge, whereupon the fight begins.

TGR:Short for "the Great Random," Godville's popular nickname for the random number generator which has a hand in basically everything in this game to some extent, from exact prices at merchants' stores, to VCs being heeded, treasure being unearthed, and the success of Actions, both inside the Arena and out. Because this determines whether an action will succeed or backfire, as well as whether VCs are heeded, TGR can make a fight very easy, extremely difficult, or anywhere in between. Many a gladiator with an otherwise impecabble strategy and record owes a few losses to the fickle nature of the Random. (This is something to be cautious of when dueling, but also the very reason a new player could beat a Top 10 fighter- I've seen this happen, and it was not pretty. For the veteran, at least. The newcomer was ecstatic.)

VC: Abbreviation for "Voice Command." Also known as Godvoices. In the Arena as elsewhere, these cost 5% GP to use. In a duel, each of these types of commands (Attack, Heal, and Pray) have a 30% chance of being obeyed. VCs don't count as an Action.

Game Geek Gallery

Links to stuff that came in handy for me on the wiki, and any handy formulae I may have encountered. If I'm even doing this one anymore.

Ideaboxing

Thanks to SourceRunner 庙畜(U • C • T) for getting me started- more updates here later when I can hold still for 5 seconds at a time.

My Current Projects

Writing a story series based loosely on Lady Shadows ' play "Without Us." Setting and plot would be a HUGE spoiler so far, so one question that sparked the idea: What happens with a hero once his or her god leaves for real? What would happen to Godville's villages without enough new heroes to replace the retirees and possible Feral Hero material? And what would the remaining god-watched heroes do, in the minority?

See EIS Talk page for current projects. Also providing plebe input to be sure the Ideabox guide under construction is understandable to anyone (if I can understand it, anyone can)

"Ideaboxing: A Manual Plus" guide, still underway

Chipping away at some epic writer's block (since September 2012, in fact)

Dusting off this page (eventually)

"Not Begun" = I haven't started that yet. "Begun" = I have started, but only just. "Underway" = Making progress, possibly with actual content people can use by this point. There is no "Completed." When it's complete, it won't need a tag attached to the section header.